Trees or Water

The best place to dead-stick an airplane is obviously on a runway. But that may not be an option.

By Bill DeBrauwer

So given the choice between trees or water, it might seem obvious to pick the later. But research done by our sister publication Aviation Safety shows that whichever one you chose, it's a wash.

In a review of 179 ditchings and 216 forced landings over a three year period, the results showed that the odds of surviving either type of landing was around 90 percent.

What the analysis did reveal was the risk of injury was higher when into the trees than in the water and the risk of serious injury was even higher, which only makes sense.

Not surprisingly, the data also showed that speed kills, or at least hurts. Many forced landings went from bad to worse when the airplane overshot the field or ran out of room.

Slower speeds also lessen the impact energy that's absorbed by the airframe and passengers on board. This is especially important in tree landings where controllability isn't an issue anymore as the airplane sinks into the branches.